The first principle is that you must not fool yourself -- and you are the easiest person to fool.

What I cannot create, I do not understand.

The seeker after truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them.

-- Ibn al-Haytham

The duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads.

-- Ibn al-Haytham

Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fancies.

-- Hypatia

To teach superstitions as truth is a most terrible thing.

-- Hypatia

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

-- William James

My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.

-- Stephen Hawking